Audio in tumblr won't play on iPad - why?
October 12, 2012 1:52 PM   Subscribe

An mp3 embedded in a tumblr post; iPhone plays it, iPad doesn't. Why?

The mp3 file uploaded, and tumblr holds all the metadata, OK, cool.

When I look at the post in Safari on my iPhone 4S (iOS 5), I get a little picture of the track's cover, and next to it a big play button with the title of the piece. When pressed, the audio plays fine.
When I look at the same post on my iPad2 (iOS6, but iOS5 did the same), Safari shows me a little mocking "[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]" line, with a link to Adobe's Get Flash site.

So... tumblr doesn't register that it's an iPad calling up the post? Or is there something I'm not getting/doing wrong?

(As an aside: the same post in Firefox on the computer only gets a big black Play bar - why no cover image / title?)

For reference, the post is here.
posted by progosk to Computers & Internet (5 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Your iPhone sees the mobile version of pages, while the iPad, I believe, gets desktop versions. So my guess is that mobile Tumblr uses HTML5 while desktop Tumblr is serving the file through Flash.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:53 PM on October 12, 2012 [3 favorites]


I think you have to use the unbearably ghastly mobile version of tumblr for this on an ipad?

tbh this may just be a terrible nightmare i had
posted by elizardbits at 1:58 PM on October 12, 2012


Response by poster: the iPad, I believe, gets desktop versions

that would explain it.

Seems pretty unreasonable that for tumblr the iPad = desktop, I must say.

Anything to be done about this? (I'm pretty new to tumblr, and there doesn't seem to be a useful way to take the issue up with their support.)

Thanks for any suggestion...
posted by progosk at 2:23 PM on October 12, 2012


Response by poster: Digging a little, I found this remark, and indeed, deep in the advanced tumblr layout settings I find the option checked to have a special mobile-optimized layout served to phones.

So then, question is: is there a way to either get tumblr to serve this layout to iPads, too (my guess is not), or at least some way to change the user agent on iPad, so that Safari tricks tumblr into thinking it's a phone?

(Can't believe I'm wanting Flash on an iPad...)
posted by progosk at 3:02 PM on October 12, 2012


Best answer: Atomic Web Browser ($0.99) allows you to change the user agent. I just confirmed that it works on my iPad when I have the browser identify as "mobile - iPhone".
posted by Quiscale at 9:30 PM on October 12, 2012


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